Friday, July 15, 2016

The Weekly Sneak Problems of American Imperialism

The Black Lives Matter movement is one which I don't think should remain an American one alone. This is a watershed issue that is kicking up all of the racial silt laid down through centuries not only of American imperialism but the colonialism that preceded that. It has deep roots in this thing we call globalization, and maybe it is time to acknowledge that globalization's history has been a bloody one.

"Global citizenship is a hard concept for the United
States of America. How can it not be in a country at war with itself?
Black Lives Matter is a movement with deep historical roots, and an
essential lesson in power and it's misuse. This is not the only, or
even maybe the main story of American civic illness because the
Native American experience doesn't get nearly enough attention. But
in all honesty, the Africanist in me makes it hard not to gravitate
towards this particular fight.

Racism is wrong in all of
it's iterations. It has no discernible function outside of justifying
the worst of human behavior. I can't help but think that if America
is going down the path of Strange Fruit, yet again, it might be the
global community's responsibility to rectify that. America probably
needs economic sanctions for it's wars against its own civilians as
much as South Sudan does. And no, that' not a joke: I am not that
funny."